Black Canadians

Canadian attitudes towards Black-Canadians have both changed and remained the same after the first world war. While new opportunities and talk of acceptance and equality for Black-Canadians in the military arose, discrimination remained. The first world war was led by many white men with an intolerance towards blacks. The Canadian Forces thought of the war as a “white man’s war” and denied black men born in Canada with the same qualifications as other white Canadians solely because of the colour of their skin. Military enlistment for people of colour was exceedingly hard. However, the black community, some politicians, and other advocates began to speak up about the military’s bigotry. In a letter written by Arthur Alexander, he voiced his…

an added $100 million to aid the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in efforts to help the Syrian refugees meet their daily needs (Fitz-Morris, 2015). However, Canada is only offering a permanent home to a mere 1% of the total number of new refugees forced to flee their countries in 2014 (Canadian Counsel for Refugees, 2015).…

among Black Canadian adolescents show a significant gap in public health policies. Despite Canada having a universal healthcare system, Black adolescents face constant barriers to access to mental health services, exacerbating disparities in mental health outcomes. Institutional racism permeates healthcare facilities, leading to discrimination, implicit biases, and unequal distribution of resources. (Salami et al., 2022) Moreover, cultural factors contribute to the stigma surrounding mental…

the few people who were able to immigrate to Canada very difficult. Within this broad group of immigrants, let’s focus on Asian immigrants, specifically Chinese immigrants as they played a significant role in Canadian history in the period of 1914-1929. There were many examples of how immigrants of Chinese descent were excluded from society in this time period. One way that they were excluded and relegated to a dark sector of society was the Chinese head tax. Up until 1923, the Chinese head tax…

Nov. 11 - The impressive efforts that Canadians made during the world war is not to be overlooked. Our many outstanding achievements made during the last three months have proved Canada’s army to be amongst the best of the best. Successful battles such as one that took place at Vimy Ridge, France or Passchendaele, Belgium give Canadians a reputable name as the best-offensive Allied troop. Canadian troops were given the task of being the forerunners of the attacks and we completed our assignments…

The ‘Obama effect’, a decrease of implicit anti-black evaluative bias after exposure to Barak Obama, first became apparent during the 2008 presidential primaries. Initially it was not clear that this reduction was in reaction to Obama specifically however, follow-up research later confirmed this. In 2011, a study was conducted which provided evidence of this effect at the beginning of his presidency. As the study was conducted some years later, researchers were faced with the challenge to revert…

Police Brutality is something that we have become unfortunately familiar with in this day and age. Many websites, newspaper articles, and news broadcasts educate the public on these reoccurring events. Many protests quickly follow these reports as people are outraged on these never ending incidents. Most of these incidents are due to racial discrimination and almost all are towards the Black population in America. In Praying for Sheetrock, we learn about McIntosh County in Georgia and the…

In 2000, Kenneth Meeks wrote a book called Driving While Black: What To Do If You Are A Victim Of Racial Profiling. In this book, he talks about being black and your rights during a traffic stop, how to ride a train while black, shop in a group while black, shop alone while black, flying while black, living while black and so on. Thoughts like this further the divide stating that if you are black then you need to do things differently. This book defines racial profiling as “the tactic of…

In “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space,” Staples argues that stereotyping and discrimination greatly influences the way black males are forced to function in everyday life. It is clear that he is very troubled especially by the problem of the “criminal” stereotype associated with this this group, which he is a part of. When explaining his and others experiences with fear and prejudice, Staples admits that he is the one who has to end up conforming because society is not willing to.…

In the summer of 2011 a movie that changed many peoples views of the civil rights movement was released. The movie explored the lives of black maids and expressed a bold statement that racism was still abundant in the south even after the abolishment of slavery and the equal rights movement. The movie followed one woman in particular on her journey to chastise the ways of the southern lifestyle in Mississippi during the 1960’s. The Help was such an exemplary movie because it was extremely…